Improvement in machines for striping and cutting leather



@teint hm JOHN `E. COFFIN, OF PORTLAND, AND CHARLESE. MORRILL AND GEORGE F. HALL, v OF "VVESTBROOK, MAINE; `COEFIN AND HALL ASSIGN TO CHARLES E. MORRILL.

Letters Patent No. 113,189, datedlllarch 28, 1871.

IMPROVEMENT lN MACHIINES'FOR STRIPING AND CUTTING LEATHER.

The Schedule referred to lu these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom. it 'may concern; Y

Be it known that we, CHARLES E. MORRILL, of `Westbrook, in' the county of Cumberland and State of Maine, and JOHN E. 001mm, of lortland, in the county of Cumberland and State of Maine, and GEORGE E. HALL, of said Westbrook, haveinveuted a new and useful Machine for Stripiug and Cutting Leather and other Skins; and we hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming part of this specification, in Which--l Figure 1 is a side elevation.

Figure 2 is a top plan.

Figure 3 is a vertical.longitudinal section of the bed and parts thereon.

Same letters show like parts.

The general purpose of -our invention is to provide a machine for cutting leather into strips and imparting color-to the same, and for doing the same simultaneously and with enhanced speed and facility. The leather thus colored in long strips and cutis intended to be used for'shoe-bindings.

Before invention had improved the art of making the bindings they were striped or colored by hand, with the use of a sort of brush having ngers or projeotions equidistant from each other, and covered with some Vspongy or porous substance, like felt, to hold the coloring matter and convey it to the leather. This brush, being moved over the leather guided by -a straight-edge, wouldmake several parallel lines or stripes at the same movement. The cutting was afterward done, also by hand.

We are aware of certain patented machines, also, for this purpose, but they are different from ours in method of operation, and, moreover, do not perform the various parts of the work simultaneously. The mechanical structure and arrangement is also quite different from ours, aswill appear from the ensuing description.

le are .also aware of patent No. 42,300, of 1864, where, iuv a machine quite different from ours instructure and principle of operation, the cutting and strip ing are done at one operation.`

The general operation of the machine may be thus described:

The leather is placed and kept motionless spread out upon a bed or table, and the devices that operate to color and cut the leather into strips are attached to a carriage that moves over the hed and leather placed thereon. The carriage is moved by a rotary shaft' carrying two gears matching a rack or racks fixed ou the sides or near the edges of the bedror table. The carriage is furthermore guided by tracks set on the upper and lower sides of the bed or table, near the edges or sides ofthe same. Running `on these are grooved trucks, into whose grooves ht the tracks.

Trucks are also suspended from the carriage as it runs on the upper tracks, and these bear up-against the tracks on the lower side of the table. Thus the carriage is, so to speak, clamped, or prevented from rising up from the table withoutremoving some of the trucks. Inasmuch as considerablepressure is em-` ployed as the carriage moves over the leather to be prepared, this arrangement of trucks secures what is indispensable-regularity and evenness of movement.

a shows the bed.

b, the carriage.

c, the upper trucks, and

d the lower.

e, the upper tracks, and

f the lower.

h, the rack on the table.

t, the motor-shaft.

j, .the gears thereon.

The carriage carries the followiugdevices: A cutter-bar, containing the knives to cut the leather; a roller to conne and facilitate the cutting of the same; a striping apparatus; a coloring-vat,- with its conductors and wicks.

These we will now describe in the above order.

It is the cutter-bar, and has on the under side thereof the slanting knivesll projecting backward from the bar as it moves. These knives pass into the grooves min the roller n, which presses the leather down onto the table with considerable force, leaving, however, the spaces embraced in the lgrooves flexible and comparatively soft for the operation of the knives, while the rest of the skin is held rigidly under the solid parts of the roller. Thus, as the cutter-bar k and roller "m pass along, the leather is out into strips, whose width is represented by the distance between the grooves of the roller. f

0 is the striping apparatus, immediately following .the roller m.. This apparatus is attached to a rod extending from one to the other side ofthe carriage b, and has movable fingers or projections p, each having there;v on a porous envelope to retainvv the coloring matter for the leather or skin. These iiugers can be applied and arranged so as to make the stripes at such distances or by any arrangement and variation desirable. They are manipulated by upright arms or rods attached to them, so that they can be raised or depressed as de.

siren.

Communicating with these ngers are the conduct ors q, leading from the vat r, containing the coloring mixture. These conductors are all set on a vibratable` rod, e, moved by a crank on the end, so that they can be lifted oi from contact dwith the fingers when necesL sary. In these conductors are intended to be placed wicks, to lead, by capillary attraction, and With nuiformity, the coloring substance onto the fingers p. y

II he vat is attached to the side pieces ofthe carriage 1 b like-the other devices, and is or may be removable.

' lhns, it will be seen, the whole is moved by the shaft t', which may be turned by a crank, or in any convenient;

- way by hand or power.

Vt -is apressure-bar, to regulate the force of' the pressureot' the knives on the skin, it being observed that the cutter-bar 1c is so attached orsuspended as to be susceptibleof u. slight movement npor down, the purpose of which is not only ,thus to be able to regulate the pressure or' the knives, but also, if desired, to lift the knives from the skin entirely.

The bed d is made of any material, but covered with a sheet or sheetsv of rubber, the elastic property of which is'very essential to the practical working of the roller u and the knives.

The carriage moves over the hed with the skin on the same, and when the transit is complete the skin-is both ent and colored as hereinbefore described. It is then moved back, and is ready for `a repetition of the operation..

'Strip is4 likely to fold up by itself, andlthns destroy the uniform impression of the lstriping` or coloring appa ratus:

A sheet of tin, or of any thin, firm, flexible snbstance, and vof' some weight, is iirst laid down on the bed a, and to this the skin is slightly attached by any adhesive material proper for the purpose, in this way, viz., a sheet of paper is pasted to the tin sheet, and then the skin pastedto the paper. Thus the wrink- .ling of the skin is prevented, and when the skin is cut and removed from the table, by removing with it a section of the paper to which it is thus connected, the loose ends of the leather strips are conlined and held together, which much increases the ease of man aging the lskin afterward.

' What we claim as our inven cure by Letters Patent, is

1. The vibratable cutter-bar k in the carriage'b, -and the roller n, in combination with a striping mechanism, as herein set forth.

2. The grooved roller n, in combination with the carriage l), to operate as herein set forth.

3. The combination of the coloring apparatus with its movable lingers p, with the conductors q and coloring-vat fr, with the roller 'm and carriage b, as herein set forth.

4. The combination of the cutter-bar 7c, roller n, and pressure-bar t, as herein set forth.

.5. The combination of the carriage b, with its cutter-bar, roller, and coloring apparatus, with the elastic hed a, as herein set forth.

tion, and desire to sed, tracks cf, and racks h, as herein set as herein set forth. Y

CHAS. E. MORRILL.. JOHN E. COFFIN. GEO. F. HALL.

Witnesses WM. H. CLIFFORD, GEORGE E. BIB-D.

.6.- -The reciprocating carriage b, in combination with.

vices, with the bed e, table, tracks, racks, and trucks,- 

